FACTS AND FANCY.
Wellington, Wednesday. Though I. have other work and other pleasures more pleasing, it is so long since my last letter to you, that I canj*6t let the time extend, and will at least give you a few lines between times to keep me fair in your memory. Easter I spent in. the Wairarapa. On Easter Monday I was one of the small party which drove to Featherston togajMiic on its wooded slopes, 'midst reafy shades. We had an idle, pleasant time. The Featherston Domain was the scene of our rambles. This excellent .reserve will bear a word or two of description. It consists of fifty-seven acres, directly behind . the Featherston .Railway Station. There 13 a nice grassy patch at the foot of tbe hill, with a commodious and well-fitted shelter shed, which-is placed at the disposal ofexcursicmJst3 and pleasure seekers generally.- .Therf> rip;.the hill Bides are gently ascending with nomerous convenient seats at almost every turn.;, .Wejvent up. by .'• The Lover's Walk." A charming view was gradually disclosed, until, culminat the top of the shoulder, could be seen the.whole of the Wairarapa Valley, its plains, its undulations, its streams, its homesteads, and all its bright fairnesses. To the right lay Lake Wairarapa, its broad bosom calm on a windless day, while far in the distance, twenty, aye possibly thirty miles beyond, could be seen the blue shade of the ocean—Palliser Bay was there. Featherston is indeed happy in the possession of so' picturesque a public property as the Domain. There was still another portion of it which we did not visit—twenty acres on tli6 opposite side of the Wellington road, just where it commences to ascend the Rimu taka Bange. •. This also is a really witching retreat, the silvery stream winding in its bed of rock and shingle adding a murmur of the life of nature to the scene. Mr J. G. Gox, who T fancy is. Chairman of the Trust, kindly : became our cicerone, and the visit was thoroughly enjoyable. Water at the larger domain is obtained from a small rivulet,-or, more plentifully, from the reservoir on its grounds which supplies by pipes the Featherston railway tanks and Mr Smith's hotel. A .while-ago when less- restraint was imposed; into this reservoir. Sometimes the owners of the s dogl shared the bath with their canine friends, and on one gloomy occasion a poor old man drowned himself in the pool. But this is all of. the past, and time has restored the purity of the water and removed all impaired flavor. ■• Many of us have experienced the unpleasant' : .effects ;bf the railway •journey'over the' Bimutaka;,incline, but. the other it fell to my lot to see its.V : iesnlts yery uvj.sibly •-.' illustrated.i'_ Is, was., soon after leaving: KaitoKe. .The car opposite'mine,' a first-class compartment, contained ' four passengers—two gentlemen and twoladies.'The train as it wound in • aaidout'commehced to ; rock in its usual sickening' manner.: - These . poor people .manifestly paled under : the combined infleence of Kaitoke j refreshments and the dread motion. Soon one after the other rushed' to the car windows moved by emotions more powerful than impulsive longing for the passing .glimpses of scenery. They were sea-sick on land! A vivid paradox, and an actual occurrence, ] .without - exaggeration. Isn't it time the department made some provision, for ; the'; comfort of ; those who cannot stand a rough j passage ?. . They ,should . ,carry_ a .professional "steward"- oh-the train. That is plainly what it is coming to, a facetious friend of mine says, to whom I mentioned tbe incident. So Mr MacMahon has managed to .
to visi'"' you with the, phonograph , after all, .Jhada'chaVwitti him as he passed through-here-.. He says that his firm (MacMatibbßrps.) have arranged for tfia' .'Rice Burlesque Company of the United states to visit these colonies. The company, which is well spoken of, is much after the style of Gaiety organisation Nellie Farren's crowd 5 . It is fifty strong, thirty burlesque members and twenty ballet dancers. rJSew. Zealand.,will bevis|te3.\;,bjrJjbim in, about six months' time*,' specialty JVI ac'ottif is a dramatic company which has as its star or at leasV as its principal attraction that ; world's, .celebrity— John L. Sullivan. This opens in Mel in July, and comes afterwards. '*' John L. " is introduced in a drami; called " Honest Hearts and WiUragf Hands.," I don't know much about tfie noted one's honesty of heartLbnt certain it is that the " willing hftad " like a glove - ;) Tfiey say that Sullivan is earning., £SOO a week .in : America at theipresent time in the same line. No doubt the piece includes a ' mill' or twe,fin which the hero nobly does his duty by simultaneously " knocking;; out of time" an unlimited characters in the piece.//-/ \ Someone, the other day asked me why IjxSJd not give you my views on theßetrenchment qnestion. Perhaps hejjpew that waj back even I, your ovfnH a Civil * Servant. .It's true 1 was, but. I _retirj§vplpniarily,Xands6necessarily "without retiring allowance, worse hick!) four or five years'ago- Hours of duty : were being extended, other privileges of'earlier times were being gradually denied, and increases of salary were; becoming microscopical |u their limitation. Work (despite the popular view to the contrary) always was plentiful. It is quite a fallacy to believe that Government employees do not do a fair day's labour.? countriesk-possibJy, "but in *New < Zealand they certainly earn their i jnoney as a general thing, and I state this with a knowledge of their capacity an 4 practice. I have "jo'say about retrenchment is ifcis-£ and. as ,fa? as I ; am aware the same opinion has not before been expressed |a print. That before : any discharge of staff takes -place the system and work of 'each department should be carefully ex-j alined, amplified, and reducei This!
has never been done. If the work were lessened (and of my own knowledge 1 am aware that it could be in many directions) fewer men would do. In the past when these fevers of retrenchment have seized hold of a Go vernment men have been discharged right and left, but there has been no curtailment of work. The natural result is that the remaining men are soon found to be unable to cope with their duties, and new hands are taken on. At first these new recruits are not attached permanently. They are called " casual clerks " and so forth, but eie long they become part and parcel of the " strength " of the service, and soon the staff is of its old dimensions. lam speaking now mainly of tLe reductions which have off and on been made in the huge Government Buildings here, where hundreds are employed. In the Public Works Department the work has diminished by discontinuance of many of the extensive operations of former times and it has prepared itself in this way for retrenchment; but in most of the other Departments the system could well be revised as an initiative and preparatory step. Of the justice or injustice of some of the recent dismissals I do not purpose to speak, except to oay that to discharge Mr Fox, chief clerk of the Police Department, just on the eve of his pension becoming due after many long yeais of service, does indeed seem positively mean on the face of it. Another fruitful cause of wild expenditure is the careless way in which the Govenment causes returns to be prepared at the beck and call of any member, however. foolish the nature of the information solicited may be, or however iiisieoiificant its requisitioner is. In many cases no one looks at these returns but the member who has, for some undiscoverable reason of his own, recklessly called for them. Some years back, a significant instance of what I refer to occurred, when a member asked for some statistics in connection with the griin traffic on the railways. . The preparation of that return cost the country seven hundred pounds, and I question very much whether any one looked at it beyond the man who ordered it, and I by no means feel certain in my own mind that even he did. Statements and papers in connection with that return were'arriving at the Government buildings from all parts of the Colony for weeks, and when they were stacked in one otthe passages there (space could not be found in any apartment at first) they took up as much room as a small house. This is the way our money is spent, and this is why retrenchment becomes necessary. Zephyr.
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Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3782, 10 April 1891, Page 3
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1,410FACTS AND FANCY. Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3782, 10 April 1891, Page 3
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